Draft Forum of Arctic Research Operators Meeting minutes ASSW April, 14:00-18:00 Coex, Seoul, Korea

Transcription

1 Draft Forum of Arctic Research Operators Meeting minutes ASSW April, 14:00-18:00 Coex, Seoul, Korea 1. Opening and reporting session 1.1 Welcome and introduction Simon Stephenson stand in as meeting chair for the Forum of Arctic Research Operators (FARO) chair Martin Bergmann, welcomed the attendees, briefly outlined the intention of the meeting and suggested a brief round of introduction. Martin Bergmann was unable to attend the meeting in Seoul but participated via videoconference. 1.2 Approval of last meeting s minutes in Nuuk, Greenland Simon Stephenson asked for changes to the minutes of the last FARO meeting in Nuuk, Greenland The minutes were approved without comments. 1.3 Adoption of the agenda Simon Stephenson asked for suggested changes to the agenda. Simon suggested to move Terry Callaghan s presentation of INTERACT to the end of the meeting. The agenda was approved. 1.4 Report from the chair (Simon Stephenson/Martin Bergmann) Simon Stephenson briefly outlined the items of the agenda and mentioned that: FARO is an informal network of logistics operators in the Arctic and that from his perspective it is important to maintain this network as a forum to exchange information of mutual interest. FARO has a legacy role in relation to IPY, because the international logistics cooperation that was established during IPY can continue to be maintained and strengthened within FARO. A future role of FARO could be to pool resources and provide multi-national assets. By keeping a high level of mutual information about the different nationally supported logistics platforms we might make use of each other s excess capacity, for example in relation to ice-breaker cruises. FARO can provide important advice to IASC and to arctic research scientists on issues relating to logistics planning. FARO could become a much more active forum if we secured greater momentum between meetings for example through regular Tele and/or Video conferences. 1.5 News from secretariat Morten Rasch gave a brief overview of the secretariat s work since the last meeting. Over the course of the past year, several telephone meetings in the interim group have taken place (see 4.1) and a couple of conference calls were held. The FARO website has been updated, and the secretariat has disseminated information of relevance to members and stakeholders both through the website and by direct e- mails. 1

2 2. Information session Short news from each country on items of relevance to other members - each member gave a short presentation on logistical items of relevance to the other members. 2.1 Germany: Uwe Nixdorf from the Alfred Wegener Institute informed about German Arctic expeditions Uwe Nixdorf s presentation 2.2 Czech Republic: Javan Kavan from Centre for Polar Ecology, University of University of South Bohemia, informed about the Czech research activities on Svalbard. Javan Kavan s presentation 2.3 Poland: Piotr Glowacki from the Polar Research Department, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences informed about the Polish Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Polar Research. Piotr Glowacki s presentation 2.4 Russia: Sergey Priamikov Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Saint Petersburg, informed about recent Russian marine research activities in the Arctic Ocean. Sergey Priamikov s presentation 2.5 Sweden: Magnus Tannerfeldt from the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat informed about the Swedish Arctic Research Programme and the Swedish Antarctic Research Programme. Magnus Tannerfeldt s presentation 2.6 Canada: Martin Bergmann (via Skype) from Polar Continental Shelf Programme (NRCAN) informed about Building for Arctic S&T in Canada. Martin Bergmann s presentation 2.7 China: Wang Yong and Jun Wu from the Polar Research Institute of China, informed about the Chinese activities during the last year. China has had many scientists in Svalbard and has had scientists visiting Iceland. China is planning for the future to intensify research in the Arctic Ocean. 2.8 Korea: Dongmin Jin from the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) informed about their Arctic Ocean Cruise in 2010 and plans for the 2011 season. Dongmin Jin s presentation 2.9 Japan: Hiroyuki Enomoto and Hiroshi Kanda from the Arctic Environment Research Centre (NIPR) informed about the Japanese activities during the last year. Hiroyuki Enomoto and Hiroshi Kanda s presentation 2

3 2.10 UK: Cynan Ellis-Evans from the Natural Environment Research Council and representing the views of British Antarctic Survey informed about UK activities during the last year. There has been a change from research mainly in Antarctic to research in both the Arctic and Antarctic. This will bring the ship James Clark Ross to the Arctic and it is hoped that link to other nations will increase her activity internationally. In addition, several well-equipped aircrafts (four Twin Otters and a Dash 7) are brought to the Arctic. The summer station in Svalbard is going from short-term to long-terms lease. UK is now part of SIOS and has joins INTERACT/SCANNET Denmark: Morten Rasch from the National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University gave highlights from Greenlandic/Danish Research logistics Morten Rasch s presentation 2.12 USA: Simon Stephenson from the National Science Foundation informed about the US-NSF activities during the last year. More than 50 % of their research takes place in Alaska; they have also had a slight increase in research in Greenland. An area with growing research is Siberia. USA is a good partner for research on the ice sheet, as Denmark is for research along to the coast. Simon also mentioned that in 2014 they would have a new ship/icebreaker India: Rasik Ravindra, director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, gave a presentation of research being carried out at the National Centre. 3. Other information items 3.1 Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) Georg Hansen, from the Norwegian Research Council, gave a presentation of The Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) ESFRI initiative Georg Hansen s presentation 3.2 INTERACT: A terrestrial ecosystem component to SAON Terry Callaghan, from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, gave a presentation of INTERACT - International Network for Research and Monitoring in the Arctic. Terry Callaghan s presentation 3.3 International Arctic Science Committee (IASC): How can FARO contribute to IASC? It was discussed how FARO in the future can contribute to the work of IASC. The following suggestions came up: Helping with special request from IASC marine group through their contact person (Jackie Grebmeier) Jackie Grebmeier to send information for the FARO website Providing information concerning ships/vessels for example German ships will not be in the area for several seasons Providing information concerning rules for application in different countries Organizations can provide FARO with cruise plans and/or links to cruise plans and other relevant information 3

4 Providing information about contact persons for different organizations/projects. Providing information about scientists IASC (?) workshop in November, Naja Mikkelsen contact person. Sergey Priamikov, Arctic & Antarctic Research Institute, Russia introduced Peculiarities of application forms and review procedures for marine scientific research in eez of the Arctic Ocean coastal states Sergey Priamikov s presentation Simon Stephenson suggested establishing an interim group to work further with this issue and to provide a suggestion on how FARO can help to make it easier to achieve an overview of application procedures in the different arctic countries. The interim group was established with Uwe Nixdorf, Simon Stephenson, Piotr Glowacki, Martin Bergmann and Sergey Priamikov as participants. Discussion: Each country must put their application forms/rules on the FARO website (contact: Lillian Magelund Jensen - limj@dmu.dk). Sergey Priamikov s presentation must also be put on the website in order to help/inform scientist about the very different rules from country to country. Concerning ingenious people, it is a legal issue in Canada but not in USA. 3.4 Future regulation of research in the Polar Sea related to UNCLOS Uwe Nixdorf gave a presentation Arctic: Legal and Policy Consequences FARO will be asked showing the future problems concerning research in the Arctic if there is no freedom for research and we have no access to the Arctic without permissions. He suggested that: FARO ask IASC to approach the Arctic Council that stewardship should with respect to the global common heritage comprise freedom for science in the Arctic FARO ask IASC to approach its member states to foster a process that results in harmonized procedures to get permissions for Marine Scientific Research in the Arctic Discussion: We (FARO) should start thinking about the problems and ask IASC to approach their member states concerning the problem. Maybe even approach the Arctic council - delicate question. Simon Stephenson suggested establishing an interim group to work further with this issue. The interim group was established with Sergey Priamikov, Martin Bergmann, Uwe Nixdorf, Dongmin Jin, Volker Rachold and IASC. Uwe Nixdorf s presentation 3.5 Introduction of the idea concerning a Polar decade David Hik, chair of IASC, introduced the idea of an International Polar Decade (IPD). In order to continue to keep the focus on polar sciences in the coming decades the initiative of an International Polar Decade has been suggested by WMO to be further explored, developed and financed. The IPD is not planned to be at the same level of funding as existed during the last IPY. 4. Internal business 4.1 Future role of FARO 4

5 Morten Rasch presented the results of work in the FARO interim group: What shall be the main objectives of FARO in the years to come? Still a need for having a forum for informal information exchange among international logistics leaders once every year. IASC should guide FARO on the needs from the research community for an organisation like FARO. Shall FARO become a member organisation? If FARO remains an informal forum for information exchange at one annual meeting, the costs for running the forum are very limited. If FARO develops into a more active organisation with well-defined tasks, there will be a need for a much more active secretariat and accordingly more substantial funding. Discussion: FARO is important in relation to coordination of access to arctic areas, ships, stations and general information and is very useful for IASC s working group. The FARO Secretariat could distribute information from/for IASC and others. An example: Sergey Priamikov information about Peculiarities of application forms and review procedures for marine scientific research in eez of the Arctic Ocean coastal states (see section 3.3). Morten Rasch s presentation 4.2 Future relation between IASC and FARO after the establishment of the new structure for IASC. FARO (Simon Stephenson/Martin Bergmann) is to respond to IASC, when IASC s new structure had been fully implemented. 4.3 FARO website comments and ideas concerning the content The members were asked to send comments and suggestions to the FARO Secretariat. 4.4 Next FARO meeting The next meeting will be at the ASSW 2012, April in Montreal, Canada. 4.5 Any other business No other business 5. Closure Simon Stephenson and Martin Bergmann thanked the secretariat and the members for good cooperation during the last year. Simon Stephenson also thanked the ASSW 2011 Organizing Committee for help with organising the meeting. Minutes including the presentations will be available on the FARO website. Participants Members: Martin Bergmann, Natural Resources Canada, Canada Simon Stephenson, National Science Foundation, USA Morten Rasch, Aarhus University, Denmark Lillian Magelund Jensen, Aarhus University, Denmark 5

6 Uwe Nixdorf, Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany Piotr Glowacki, Polish Academy of Science, Poland Sergey Priamikov, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Russia Jan Kavan, Centre for Polar Ecology, Czech Republic Roberto Azzolini, European Polar Board, Italy Magnus Tannerfeldt, Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, Sweden Wang Yong, Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, China Jun Wu, Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, China Dongmin Jin, Korea Polar Research Institute, Korea Hong Kum Lee, Korea Polar Research Institute, Korea Cynan Ellis-Evans, British Antarctic Survey, UK Hiroyuki Enomoto, National Institute of Polar Research, Japan Observers/guests: Nicole Biebow, Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany Oleg Ditrich, Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic Ken Wowryk, Environment Canada, Canada Georg Hansen, Research Council of Norway, Norway Jiyoung Lee, Korea Polar Research Institute, Korea Roy Kim, Korea Polar Research Institute, Korea Chanu Lee, Korea Polar Research Institute, Korea Hong Kum Lee, Korea Polar Research Institute, Korea Hiroyuki Enomoto, National Institute of Polar Research, Japan Volker Rachold, IASC, Germany Rasik Ravindra, director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, India 6